If you would like to set Grail to load a different home page when it starts, you can use the General item of its Preferences menu to set this value, along with eight other default actions.

If you want more information about Grail, browse to the Grail home page.

Getting the Mosaic Browser

The Mosaic browser, from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, is one of the original Web browsers, and has helped spawn the variety of browsers in use today. If you'd like to explore this browser, you can get the full source code, in which case you'll need to also purchase and install the X11 Motif libraries, and then compile, or build, the browser for Linux. You'll find copies at

ftp://ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Mosaic

If you don't have Motif, a commercial graphical interface library for the X Window System, you can download a binary, or precompiled, version that doesn't require Motif. You can find a copy at

ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/packages/NCSA/Web/Mosaic/Unix/binaries/2.7b

Look for the file Mosaic-linux-static-2.7b5.gz, which contains everything you need in one 3.2MB compressed file. Once you decompress the file and make it executable, you can run it, for example:

# gunzip Mosaic-linux-static-2.7b5.gz

# chmod +x Mosaic-linux-static-2.7b5

# ./Mosaic-linux-static-2.7b5

The Mosaic browser will start by creating several resource files in your home directory. You may also use several X11 Toolkit options to start the browser, such as geometry settings, for example:

# Mosaic -geometry 640x480

This command line will start the Mosaic browser in a 640¥480-pixel window on your display. By default, Mosaic will try to automatically load its home page:

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Xmosaic

Although the Mosaic browser is a single, self-contained program, all of its help files are loaded from the Mosaic home page at www.ncsa.uiuc.edu.

Setting Up and Downloading with Netscape Communicator

The Netscape Communicator Web browser, by Netscape Communications, is one of the most popular browsers for all computer systems. You can get a copy specifically designed for Linux by navigating to the Netscape home page, home.netscape.com, filling out various

queries and menus, and downloading the file.

Be prepared for a long wait, however. The current version of the browser, Netscape Communicator 4.03, is more than 10 megabytes in compressed form, and features several additional built-in components, such as mail, composer, and discussions (for reading Usenet news). After you have downloaded the file into a temporary directory, decompress the Netscape package by using the gunzip command, and then type

# ./ns-install

The installation script, ns-install, will extract the required files, create any necessary directories, and then install the browser. By default, Netscape and all of its files are installed into a directory called netscape under the /opt directory. You'll want to take a look at the README file in the netscape directory for information on release notes, features, or known problems.

If you'd like to run Netscape from the command line, you can specify its full path, for example:

# /opt/netscape/netscape

This will run the browser, but a better way to set up Netscape is to create a symbolic link to a more often recognized directory, such as /usr/local/bin, for example:

# ln -s /opt/netscape/netscape /usr/local/bin/netscape

This will create the symbolic link, netscape, in a binary directory usually recognized by your PATH environment variable.

Netscape, like most well-behaved X11 clients, can also use several X11 Toolkit options. If you don't like the large initial window, you can specify a smaller starting window using geometry settings. You can get a list of Netscape's initial command-line options with the -help option.

You'll find several of these options useful. For example, as I've pointed out in this hour, the geometry settings can help reduce the initial window size of your browser. A much better option, especially for laptop users with little screen real estate, is the -component-bar option, for example:

# netscape -component-bar &

This command will run Netscape, but the application, and its additional components, which include mail, discussions, and composer, will appear in a short vertical floating window you can put off to one side of the screen. You can then run the desired component by clicking on one of the icons in the small window.

There's not enough room in this hour to discuss all of the various components and the differences between different versions of Netscape Communicator, but you can find a lot of information by using Netscape's Help menu information system. Unlike Mosaic and other browsers, Netscape installs all of the help files you need to get started on your hard drive. You'll find information about each component, and how to set up and use them, along with a full discussion of HTML page composition.

Figure 13.2 shows the Netscape Communicator browser.

Figure 13.2.
The Netscape Communicator browser, one of the most popular Web browsers, comes in a Linux version and supports most of the popular Netscape plug-ins.

The Linux version of Netscape Communicator also supports many different plug-ins, or additional programs that add features to this browser. Some of these plug-ins allow you to listen to live radio or watch recorded and live video. For more information about using

plug-ins with Netscape, browse to

http://cgi.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/extensions/info.cgi

For more information about getting the latest audio and video, or RealPlayer, plug-in, browse to

http://www.real.com/50/index.html

Chatting with Internet Relay Chat

The irc (Internet relay chat) command, found under the /usr/bin directory, is a program you can use to converse with other people on the Internet. When you run irc, you can use the built-in irc commands to connect to chat servers, see who is chatting, and set many other options.

The irc command has built-in help on more than 110 different commands and topics, many of which have further subtopic help. In order to use this program, you should have an active Internet connection. By default, the irc program will try to connect to several default chat servers (other computers supporting IRC). Once you're connected, the screen will split into two parts, with ongoing discussions and responses in the upper portion of the screen. You can use the lower portion of the screen to enter commands to the irc program, or send keyboard sentences as messages to different active discussions.

Using IRC is much different from reading and responding to Usenet newsgroups. Discussions and comments are read and sent as you type. You should first browse through the irc command's help facility, and read all the available introductory information about the following topics: basics, commands, etiquette, expressions, intro, ircII, menus, news, newuser, and rules.

You can get a list of the help topics by using the irc /HELP command, for example:

> /HELP newuser

> /HELP etiquette

To find out more about participating in irc chat sessions, read the built-in help files, and see the documentation for irc under the /usr/doc directory.